A thoroughly clinical performance by Chelsea. The scoreline doesn’t do justice to the way Chelsea dominated the game. It was one of those days when almost everyone had a fantastic game. Going by the way the game was played, for a moment you might thought that it is Liverpool who are in all competitions. This match was a quite a treat to watch. It wasn’t a goal fest but you could see the tactical battle where Liverpool was worn down by our superior midfield which was missing Essien The Engine and Boom Boom Ballack.

As Essien and Ballack weren’t there I was little reluctant to about 4-3-3 as I thought we’d be defensive. How wrong I was! Jose opted for 4-3-3 with Joe Cole and Sheva on the wings. I remember that 4-4-2 against Liverpool in the FA Cup semifinal last year brought about our downfall. May be boss wanted to really punish them with pacy counterattacks instead of through middle slow set up goals. Jose chose Ferreira over Diarra and also he preferred to risk Carvalho by playing him for 90 minutes.

In the first half, we were all over the scousers. We kept pushing and pressurising them and the goal was coming any minute. With just 10 minutes into the first half, it must have been clear even for Rafa Benitez, that we’re gonna score. With whatever possession Liverpool had, they weren’t able to create anything. Our midfield of Lampard, Maka and Mikel were simply too hot to handle for Gerrard and co. Carvalho’s last minute inclusion was such a massive relief and he completely justified his inclusion and showed what difference he can make. Just when I was getting impatient, Ricardo stormed unchallenged through the midfield and made a 24-carat throughball to find Drogba. And then, it was for everyone to see what Didier is all about – power, perseverance and precision. Drogba made a fool of Agger and dribbled the ball under his nose and that little footwork lost his marker. He positioned himself so well to unleash a precisely timed pass for Joey to make a great left-footed finish.

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/3C6w846AOXphmcNkb[/video]

Drogba and Joe Cole were always posing problems for the Reds defence. Especially Drogba, with his cunning anticipation embarrassed the Liverpool midfield quite a few times. Ashley Cole linked up with Drogba as he has always done and that was one thing for which Liverpool simply did not have any answers. He must be disappointed that he couldn’t score but I have a strong feeling that the precious away goal will come from his boot. Drogba’s role changed slightly in the second half as he took on more defensive duties. His marking of Peter Crouch was fun to watch while being very effective. Joe Cole has been missing football and you can see that when he plays. I’m sure he’s gonna score more this season. I’m sorry for Sheva again. After some promising performances, he once appears to lack pace and needs more time for his decision making. He had just one good moment when he tricked away two defenders on the right wing to dash to the box.

Joe Cole gives his very matured assessment of the tie:

We’ll see the importance of the goal next week – it’s only half-time. Liverpool played well in the second half and there was a bit of fatigue creeping in – it’s one of those games where we had to dig in. It was a good battling performance from everyone and although we’re happy to win the game we’re not going to get over-excited with a 1-0 win. I’ve seen teams with bigger margins than us get overturned in the second leg so it’s a case of keeping our feet on the floor – next week will be the decider. It’s the first time we’ve scored against them in Europe and maybe it’ll open the floodgates.

Lampard had a very good game. He should have had a couple of goals himself and killed the tie but for Reina’s (I hate him too) reflex saves. I had mentioned in the earlier blog, that Lampard is a big match player and we cannot afford to rest him for this match. They way he lifted his game at the right time, at the right stage confirms this statement. Though I myself had chosed Maka to play, when I saw his name on the teamsheet, I was little worried if he would be the weak link. Maka did exactly what was expected of him. I’m not sure if he ever stepped in the final third. I’m tired of appreciating Mikel. I’ve heaped enough praises on his performance and potential. Like Essien, he also can play the whole match without losing the ball even once. Whenever Mikel gets ball, you can kinda bet with confidence that he just won’t let you down. Not many are better than him when it comes to the positional discipline and ball retention skills and tackling. How many of you thought Alonso must have been carded for his nasty foul on Mikel?

Surprise of the match is Paulo Ferreira’s performance. Certainly, lot of fans are losing their confidence in Paulo and many of us even want him to shipped off. He has not been in great form and Diarra’s arrival at the right back has further dented his chances. This was a big occasion and thankfully he did bloody well. Apart from a couple of instances, he had Zenden in his pocket. While Terry was okay and once again Carvalho outshone Terry. Hell, I didn’t even realise Bellamy was playing until he was subbed! Ashley Cole ensured that Gerrard does not get any space on the right wing to make any crosses. As I expected Gerrard was ineffective except one opportunistic 25-yarder which was the closest Liverpool came to scoring. Though Cech did not have much to do, he dealt with all those desparate pot shots very well.

Jose got his strategy spot on. If I say we outplayed them in the first half it will be a gross understatement. It looked like this was exactly Jose’s script – push them hard until you get a goal, defend well and hit them on the counterattack. In the second half, Liverpool had more of the ball but never really looked like scoring. I loved the way our defence went back to draw them to create spaces behind them to lead a counterattack. This also created doubts in the minds of the Liverpool players. As much as they wanted to come forward and attack, they did not want give another counterattacking chance to Chelsea. We did all this with no yellow cards and with less than half the number of fouls committed by Liverpool.

Jose believes that we will score in Anfield:

We normally score a goal and if we score a goal we have got a big chance of reaching the final. I think Liverpool think they can overturn the result but we are winning 1-0 and have a good defensive team. I thought our performance was top class. We had so many chances and we finally scored with chance number six. The second half was different from the first. Liverpool attacked more and had a chance with a great shot from Steven Gerrard.

So where does this leave this tie? I’d say Rafa will be really worried that they didn’t get an away goal. He knows that Chelsea plays very well away and would surely score with Essien and Ballack back in the squad. If Chelsea scores the away goal, Liverpool will have to score three! Not many would fancy this against a rock-solid Chelsea. If Sir Alex can be happy with a 3-2 win at home, Jose must be rejoicing. Before the start of this match, the ‘F’ word that was doing rounds was ‘Fatigue’ and now it has become ‘Favourites’. I know the job is only half one, but Chelsea are surely the favourites to go through.